Climate Change Threatens Health & Security

Climate change poses 'an immediate, growing and grave threat' to health and security around the world, said doctors, academics and military experts at a conference in London.

19 October, 2011

What's the Latest Development?

At a climate change conference recently held in London, health and security experts gathered to discuss what institutions can do to reroute our path toward an unpleasant future. As climate change continues to affect growing seasons, poor regions of the world will be put at higher risk for malnutrition. Starbucks recently said the world's coffee supplies will be put at risk by climate change in 20-30 years. Military experts at the conference said that foreign conflicts result in the burning of unsustainable amounts of fuel.

What's the Big Idea?

Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is currently at 380 parts per million (ppm). In the millions of years before our industrial era, the concentration fluctuated between 180 ppm during the Ice Age to 280 during the interglacial period. Chris Rapley, professor of climate science at University College London, says that if carbon emissions are left unchecked, atmospheric concentration will reach 1,000 ppm by the end of the century. "You have to be a pretty huge optimist to think that won't bring major changes," he says.